Theatre Review: Two Takes On A Midsummer Night's Dream

Two local theatre companies are mounting competing versions of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” They started with the same script, but each made different choices along the way, finding humor and drama in different places.

The Sacramento Theatre Company sets its production in the early
1900s, with costumes that look Turn-of-the-Century, music that
includes some early jazz, and no effort to do English accents - in
other words, consider this an "American" Dream. And director
Christine Nicholson works this Shakespeare standard by amping up
the frantic physical comedy. The constant activity feels a little
like slapstick . . . one guy even does an acrobatic flip. And
Nicholson encourages her actors to add embellishments. In this
scene, two actors pretend to be roaring lions, waving their hands
like mighty paws, recalling the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of
Oz."

(Roaring)

Matt Miller as Bottom: "Let me play the lion, too. I will
roar that I will do any man's heart good that hears me. I will roar
that the Duke will say 'Let him roar again! Let him roar
again!'"

The Bard wrote the words, the actors apply the spin. Shakespeare
would probably approve.

Director Nicholson mines almost every aspect of the play for
laughs - including the frequent tension between men and women. When
the fairy queen Titania gets angry at her husband, she goes so far
over the top that the audience immediately titters with
delight.

Titania: "Not for thy fairy kingdom!"

(Laughter).

But in the other production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream,"
at Sierra Stages, director Jac Royce treats the same scene with the
attitude that Titania's anger is very real and very serious.

Titania: "Not for thy fairy kingdom!" (Icy
silence.)

It's like Titania is heading for Fairyland divorce court --
and no one in the theater is giggling. The way director Royce sees
it, this is a play in which the clouds sometimes gather and the sky
grow dark, even though we know it's a comedy.

This is not to say that the Sierra Stages show avoids laughs.
Things get silly when Bottom -- a wanna-be actor with a huge ego --
hams things up while performing a death scene, smirking as he
pretends to stab himself.

The Sierra Stages production is also distinctly Irish, with
Celtic music and lots of green in the costumes.

These two productions come in different sizes. STC uses just
nine actors, with lots of double casting. Sierra Stages has 18
actors and a much more handsome set, with hanging fabric panels
that invoke redwood trees.

So which of these shows is the better Dream? That depends on
your preferences. If you like nonstop, over the top silliness, try
the Sacramento Theatre Company. If a focus on poetry, broader
emotions and handsome visuals is more your style, try Sierra
Stages.

Or, if you're like me, you'll want to see both, comparing the
different choices that the actors and directors made along the
way.